Cletus Seldin Hammers ex-Champ Zab Judah at the Turning Stone

Verona, NY — Cletus Seldin (24-1, 20 KO’s) stopped former two division world champion Zab Judah (44-10, 30 KO’s) in round 11 of their scheduled 12-round 140- pound main event at the Turning Stone Resort Casino in Verona, NY.

Seldin, the so-called Hebrew Hammer, dominated the fight from the opening bell with his constant pressure and high punch output. At 41, Judah could not nearly match the punch volume of Seldin and found himself often resorted to looking for one big punch. To add to Judah’s troubles, his legs seemingly abandoned him early in the fight and he often found himself on the inside eating clean punches in Seldin’s wheelhouse.

In round three, Seldin sent Judah reeling across the ring with a flush right hand. Seldin jumped on Judah, battering him against the ropes, but the bell rang to save Judah from further damage.

Seldin made a concerted effort in the middle rounds to attack the body of Judah. This body attack zapped Judah’s remaining energy and took all the steam off his punches. Though Judah occasionally landed a big shot, Seldin was undeterred and kept pressing forward, firing off hard combinations.

In the 11th, a hard right hand from Seldin caught Judah flush on his jaw. Judah was visibly hurt and fell back into the ropes where Seldin unloaded punch after punch until referee Charlie Fitch intervened to end the contest.

In an entertaining 12-round middleweight co-feature, James McGirt Jr. (27-3-2, 14 KO’s) and David Papot (22-0-1, 3 KO’s) fought to a split draw.

McGirt started fast using his significant height and reach advantage to out-box Papot in the first five rounds. Papot, though constantly pressing forward, was unable to navigate effectively inside the jab of McGirt who controlled the distance and consistently raked Papot with power punching combinations behind the jab. In round four, McGirt briefly hurt Papot with a straight left to the body but was unable to put the tough Frenchman to the canvas.

But starting in round six, Papot began to close the distance and land his own power shots with much more frequency. McGirt’s output slowed and his punches lost significant steam during the second half of the fight as Papot’s relentless pressure began to take a toll. Papot dominated the later rounds with his power punching combinations but the question as the bell sounded to end round 12 was whether he had given away too many of the early rounds.

In the end, the judges differed in how they saw things with one scoring it 117-111 for Papot, one 115-113 for McGirt and the third seeing it even 114-114.

Following a layoff of more than three years, lightweight Lavisas Williams (9-1-1, 3 KO’s) made a successful return to the ring with an 8-round unanimous decision over Mario Alfano (14-1-1, 3 KO’s). After a slow start shaking off the rust, Williams got his jab working in round three and routinely fired off scoring combinations to the head and body of Alfano behind that jab. Williams essentially dominated the fight down the stretch out-boxing the aggressive Alfano to score a well-deserved win.

Welterweight prospect Alcibiade Duran Galvan (3-0, 2 KO’s), also known as Roberto Duran Jr., won a 4-round split decision over Jonathan Pierre (3-1). Not much separated the two in the four rounds as Duran was the aggressor and landed the harder shots but Pierre had his spots, in particular finding a home with consistency with the counter right hand. In the end, Duran left with his undefeated record still preserved as two judges scored it 39-37 in his favor while the third favored Pierre with a score of 39-37. 

Wendy Toussaint (10-0, 4 KO’s) easily outclassed journeyman Lucius Johnson (4-6-1, 3 KO’s) winning a lopsided decision in a 6-round bout contested at 154 pounds.

Cruiserweight Eric Abraham (6-4, 3 KO’s) scored a mild upset in knocking out the previously undefeated Alex Vanasse (4-1, 4 KO’s) in the third round of their scheduled four round fight. Abraham knocked Vanasse down in round three with a volley of punches and then quickly closed matters dropping Vanasse for a second time with a pair of head snapping rights that brought an end to the contest.

In the opening fight of the evening, Brian McIntyre-trained welterweight prospect Boubacar Sylla (10-0, 7 KO’s) won a hard fought 6-round unanimous decision over Marquis Hawthorne (7-11, 1 KO). Hawthorne had his moments but Sylla landed the cleaner harder punches throughout the six rounds to keep his undefeated record intact.

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